Space MMO in development, beautiful graphics and vast, prodecurally generated and presumably somewhat realistic universe. I think games like this one will help spark interest in space travel.

There's a small combat prototype available if people want to blow stuff up, and several videos showing atmospheric and exoatmospheric flight, space stations, combat and cool space ships. And of course lots of pretty screenshots.

This looks like a very fun project. I like how they made the atmospheres and how you can see the other space objects etc.

It would be cool to have reality put into such an engine to visualize, where you can fly for as example with a futuristic spaceship to all the known star systems etc as we know today and that it evolves step by step as we discover more (so not just some pictures where you can zoom as google earth provides).

I do not agree. We've had things like this for ages. I think the NASA MMO project has got a better potential of sparking some interest in the general public from what I've read.

What we need to spark interest:
- Something that starts on earth, deveolping the tech
- Go to the moon
- Go to Mars
- Start mining asteroids
- Explore the solar system further (other moons, etc.)
- Leave the solar system

Actually - I think Spore does a better job than this one from what it looks like.

But never with the same level of graphical quality and immersion. Only EVE Online comes close, but unfortunately its appeal is rather narrow.

If you mean things like star wars, star trek, babylon 5 and battlestar galactica, then sure, they've certainly inspired many and they have broad appeal, but they don't offer the same kind of immersion and involvement that a game and especially an MMO can.

I agree the NASA MMO if successful will probably have a much greater effect than Infinity, but they target completely different markets.

I also agree something more down to earth, so to speak, would be better suited at making people realize that space is accessible to us if we just bother to go there. But, a good space game like Infinity is much better than nothing. And nothing is what we have right now.

Ha, reminds me of what got me into the whole Aerospace scene, a computer game called ELITE, it was a space sim which seemed to have an infinite universe where you could trade and make money to keep moving on. Loved it! It worked on me, surely with modern day computers the same will happen to other kids around the globe

EVE is a great game but unfortunately only a space game in name. despite their attempt to fool us with 3d movement and solar systems, the fact that it completely ignores basic physics takes a lot away (i still play it though). i'd love to see a MMO that actually obeyed physics at least in the context of inertia and orbits, though of course you have to break the rules a little for ftl or whatever. i didn't know nasa was making a mmo but that sounds awesome, i'll be sure to look it up when i get home.

But never with the same level of graphical quality and immersion. Only EVE Online comes close, but unfortunately its appeal is rather narrow.

A good game, has nothing to do with the graphics. You've all seen reports of people being addicted to WOW and Age of Conan, but that's nothing compared to how addicted you get to games like Mafia, Planetarion, Ogame, etc. and they're all text based with a few images as "graphics". I've been there, so I know :) EVE is nothing compared to those (I was one of the beta testers of EVE Online).

A game that's going to get people addicted to space has to be realistic! And it can't contain too much battle. It has to be massive, with no end goal like "research everything", "discover all of the universe" or "rule everybody".

But never with the same level of graphical quality and immersion. Only EVE Online comes close, but unfortunately its appeal is rather narrow.

A good game, has nothing to do with the graphics. You've all seen reports of people being addicted to WOW and Age of Conan, but that's nothing compared to how addicted you get to games like Mafia, Planetarion, Ogame, etc. and they're all text based with a few images as "graphics". I've been there, so I know :) EVE is nothing compared to those (I was one of the beta testers of EVE Online).

You're wrong. Believe me, I've been severely addicted to both planetarion and eve, and I have friends who were/are just as addicted to wow. I agree the addiction is all about gameplay, not about graphics, and planetarion is proof enough of that. But an addictive game is not the same as a good game, and is but one of the prerequisites for a game that really inspires people. This is where graphics come into play. Realism is not only about gameplay but also graphics, and immersion is very much about graphics.

Also, about eve, if you haven't played since the beta, you haven't played the eve people talk about nowadays. The game has undergone vast amounts of change, and the gameplay available during beta is just a small part of the gameplay available now. Not defending eve of course, it still doesen't cut it, but it's a very different game than it was in beta.

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A game that's going to get people addicted to space has to be realistic! And it can't contain too much battle. It has to be massive, with no end goal like "research everything", "discover all of the universe" or "rule everybody".

This is true, and one of the reasons I think Infinity will be a major influence.

Well - my opinion is still that neither EVE or planetarion, nor this one has what it takes to capture peoples imagination... there's too much science fiction around already, in movies, tv, books and games for anyone to notice any difference